Bob Marley's long lost British cousins have been traced - to the North Devon seaside town of Ilfracombe.

Carole Tovey, 66, who is white and was born Carole Marley, was ignorant of her link to musical history until this week. And as she listened to the music of her cousin, the reggae legend, for the very first time, she commented: "It's all right - I wouldn't leave the room for it."

Bob Marley was the son of Norval Marley, a white Jamaican of British descent, and Cedella Booker, a black woman, but no one had successfully traced his closest British-born relatives. The connection was finally made last week by a researcher at the Hay Festival, where the musician's record producer and mentor, Chris Blackwell, is giving a talk on Friday.

Historians had apparently neglected the Ilfracombe branch of the family because in the 1871 census the grandfather concerned was on a separate page from his older siblings. Mrs Tovey said: "It has always been a joke in the family. People would always say: 'Are you any relation to Bob Marley?' and I would say: 'Yes, he's my cousin'. We would laugh about it. Now it turns out it is the gospel truth. I've never heard his music before today. I used to like people like Neil Sedaka and the Everly Brothers. No reggae. No heavy metal. We've not been anywhere other than Ilfracombe for years. We're just country bumpkins."

But her nephew Neale Marley told The Times from his home in Texas that his late grandmother, Brenda, was aware of a connection with the Jamaican branch of the family, but no one took her seriously. "She used to say that she thought my dad was related to Bob Marley because they had the same nose. We would say: 'Yeah, all right, grandma'. We just thought, you know, it was the ramblings of a crazy lady. We had no idea she was right."

As Mr Marley said "Excuse me while I light my spliff, good god I gotta take a lift"

The resemblance was uncanny.

The original was here